The Sam Pepper situation just gets uglier and uglier. As YouTube sex educator Laci Green explains in the video above, Pepper, under fire for “prank” videos on YouTube that appear to show him sexually harassing numerous young women, is now facing serious accusations of sexual misconduct from numerous women – including, in one case, violent rape.
For those who haven’t been following the story as it’s developed over the past week: Sam Pepper is a former Big Brother UK cast member and YouTube personality best known for a series of unfunny “prank” videos which have often featured him sexually harassing women in various creepy ways.
Earlier this week, Pepper posted a video titled “Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank,” that featured him grabbing the asses of various women he encountered on the street with his real hand – the fake hand (arm, actually) was a bit of a misdirect to make it look as though it wasn’t really him doing the pinching.
This apparently was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. After a groundswell of complaints about the blatant sexual harassment in the video, YouTube took it down.
Pepper responded with a second video, in which a woman went around pinching men’s asses, and then a third, in which he claimed, bizarrely, that the whole thing had been staged with actors in an attempt to bring public attention to the issue of … sexual harassment against men.
This claim reeks of bullshit. Over the course of his less-than-illustrious career Pepper has put forth numerous videos that feature similar sexual harassment of women — oh, sorry, “pranks.” If you go through his YouTube uploads, you’ll find videos in which he literally handcuffs himself to unsuspecting and clearly uncomfortable women, promising to release them if they kiss him. In other videos he forces kisses on other unsuspecting women; in yet another he and an accomplice literally lasso women and claim them for their own.
Are all these videos fake, too? Are they all part of his grand plan to bring light to sexual harassment against … men?
Or are they what they appear to be, videos in which Pepper harasses women and calls it pranking?
And is his big “reveal” video a sincere attempt to bring attention to sexual harassment of men?
Or is it a desperate attempt to spin his way out of a scandal of his own making and rescue his sleazy but extremely lucrative YouTube career, which is now in danger of imploding?
The answers to these questions seem pretty obvious to me.
And now, as Laci Green points out in the video above, women are coming forward to tell of their own (alleged) encounters with Pepper. Their stories paint a picture of Pepper as an overentitled sexual predator who uses his internet fame – he’s got 2.4 million YouTube followers – as a tool to exploit and abuse young women – and teenage girls.
Below, I’ve posted a video from the woman who says Pepper raped her. It’s harrowing to watch — and a big TRIGGER WARNING for graphic description of the alleged rape. She has also provided a written account here, including screenshots of texts she allegedly exchanged with Pepper.
I say “alleged” because the case has not been proven in court. But I believe her.
You can find another video from an accuser here. Laci Green’s Open Letter to Pepper — written before the latest round of accusations — is here. Green has been getting threatening emails that seem to be coming from Pepper himself; Pepper, on Twitter, claims that his email address is being “spoofed” and that the threats aren’t coming from him. Buzzfeed, meanwhile, reports that Pepper is also being accused of soliciting nude photos from an underage girl. Another girl claims that Pepper sexually assaulted her when she was 15.
Follow Green on Twitter for updates as this develops. I suspect this is going to get even uglier still.
What a piece of shit. If anyone believes Pepper really did this to raise awareness of sexual harassment against men, I’ve got some swampland to sell them.
Thing is, even if it had been a social experiment (which is bullshit), did he get consent from all the women featured in the first video to take part in that experiment. Did they all sign a form saying “yes, you may pretend to grab my ass, FOR SCIENCE?” Because if not, those women were just as harassed regardless of what he claims that his intentions were.
Ooh ooh, I know! *waves hand* The video was really a sincere attempt to focus public attention on the plight of minor celebrity douchebulbs who think groping women without consent is comedy.
If his intent all along had been to make some convoluted meta-point about male harrassment, then shouldn’t he have created role-reversal and “reveal” videos for his previous pranks as well? It wasn’t until he started getting pushback that all of a sudden he became an armchair gender studies professor.
I’m sure to dudes like Pepper and his fans male harassment = being asked not to harass women.
🙁
Just… 🙁
In slightly more lighthearted news, the Deseret News published an anti-same sex marriage editorial today.
Aside from the fact that it should probably be served with Thousand Island dressing, the author unintentionally argues that marriages between two women are the ideal.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865611777/Dont-make-women-optional-in-marriage.html
To those who say that rape jokes are benign and that everyone knows assaulting women is wrong “Duh!” and that we shouldn’t take folks in the media like Sam Pepper and Daniel Tosh seriously, here’s mud in your eye.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to scream obscenities into this pillow for the next hour.
Worth noting that Laci did in fact seek a fair bit of legal advice regarding her wording before putting that video up, so she’s not ignorant of the potential for legal repercussions.
For me this is a perfect example of the sliding scale of rape culture: dude crosses women’s boundaries and violates their bodily autonomy without consent, plays it for laughs, tries to minimize or redirect when called out on it, and his fans come after LG for “attacking” Pepper when he “hasn’t done anything wrong”. And also he, or one of his fans who’s okay with pretending to be him, has made some nasty email threats to try and scare her into silence. And now it turns out the dude may have actually raped women.
Guys who think it’s okay to ignore women’s objections in one area are far less likely to respect the boundaries women try to set up in other areas. *THAT* is rape culture in a nutshell.
Worth noting that Laci did in fact seek a fair bit of legal advice regarding her wording before putting that video up, so she’s not ignorant of the potential for legal repercussions.
For me this is a perfect example of the sliding scale of rape culture: dude crosses women’s boundaries and violates their bodily autonomy without consent, plays it for laughs, tries to minimize or redirect when called out on it, and his fans come after LG for “attacking” Pepper when he “hasn’t done anything wrong”. And also he, or one of his fans who’s okay with pretending to be him, has made some nasty email threats to try and scare her into silence. And now it turns out the dude may have actually raped women.
Guys who think it’s okay to ignore women’s objections in one area are far less likely to respect the boundaries women try to set up in other areas. *THAT* is rape culture in a nutshell.
(not sure if I’m getting bumped to moderation for using the r-word multiple times)
I can’t load videos at work, but if someone handcuffed themselves to me I doubt they’d have time to ask for a kiss.
I would freak the hell out.
A week ago, I had no idea who this Sam Pepper shit was. Wish I still didn’t. That girl in the second video reminds me so much of Tori Amos singing “Me and a Gun”, which of course was also about a rape. Right down to the tremor in her voice.
I hope someone nails this fucker’s creepy ‘nads to the wall.
Ooof.
Listening to that story reminds me of the time my girlfriend recounted her rape to me. It never gets easier to hear. I hope things go well for her.
Sam Pepper is just the most slime-drenched illicit spawn of a slack-jawed eel that ever slithered from a trench. I didn’t know about him until I saw Laci Green’s video yesterday, but I hate the dude. If someone hand-cuffed themselves to me and then told me they wouldn’t release me until I kissed them I would try to pound them into the earth. Partly because I came from an abusive home and flash back like a vet from ‘nam when cornered by men (thanks, physical abuse) but also because I get severely skeeved out when men try to kiss me even if I have room to run (thanks, past sex abuse). The sad thing about it is that I would suspect deep down that by acting in an aggressive manner toward the man who hand cuffed me I would probably get the shit beat out of me in return, but while that knowledge terrifies me it has never stopped me before. I’m more afraid of what will happen if I don’t act at all. My very worst fear is failing to guard against the worst people on this planet because I believe deep in my bones that their actions should never be allowed to go unpunished. Even if I become a punching bag for all my pride and stubborn sense of justice.
That said, if anyone tries to say women should always fight back in these scenarios they are a piece of shit. I just want to announce this preemptively, in case a troll strolls through and takes what I said the wrong way. I do insane, gutsy things because I’ve been deeply traumatized in my past due to power imbalances and fear nothing more than losing that power over myself all over again. Not everyone is the same, and we should all be grateful for that.
Just…that guy. Ugh, that guy. *shudders*
lordpabu, hugs if they’re wanted, kudos in any case.
Seconded. I don’t have an abusive background, would be afraid, also, of getting hurt worse – but I would want to put a man who did that in a great deal of pain.
I’d begin screaming for help.
I love the blissful lack of awareness with which he says “Women’s unpaid work is vital to society.”
Ideally I’d have a sword-cane. Hell, I use a walking stick anyway, and producing something that would make Mr Pepper or whoever shit themselves would be interesting.
I’m just trying to envision what would happen if I were to handcuff myself to an unwilling woman (in public or not). Even thinking about keeping myself attached to a clearly uncomfortable and creeped-out woman is making me feel kinda sick. Somehow I think my reaction is a more appropriate one than trying to make it into a “prank” at her expense for dudebros to laugh at on the internet.
tl;dr – what is wrong with this guy?!
Thanks kitteserf, I will accept ALL the hugs. :3
I think I often feel the need to contextualize my reasons for being aggressive in these situations because every time there has been one dude in a group of men and non-feminist women who has triggered me I get blamed. Like I should just be chill when my boundaries are being tested and I’m being treated badly. But really, a person shouldn’t have to have been though what I’ve been through in order to be justified in defending themselves in whatever way they see fit. Hell, maybe we’d have fewer traumatized people on this planet if we all thought it was okay to stand up for ourselves in the beginning.
As for having a sword-cane in that scenario? Hells to the yes! I would pay good money to not only see Pepper’s face in that scenario, but to get a high resolution print and put it on my wall. Which I would probably then draw all over and ultimately transform into a snarky screen print or painting, because that’s what I do.
Nobody needs an excuse for telling someone to back the fuck up and stop ignoring their boundaries If people are demanding an excuse when you attempt to do so, they’re probably not good people to be around, especially if they don’t get it when you try to explain why you shouldn’t have to give them what they consider a valid “excuse”.
Lordpabu, I agree entirely.
I love your screen print or painting idea. 😈
Let’s just pretend there was some punctuation in there between “boundaries” and “If”.
What disturbs me a little is when the general “don’t talk about violently punishing people” spills into “don’t say that you want to hurt someone who’s assaulting you”. Because damn right I want to hurt anyone doing what this Pepper does, whether it was to me or a woman nearby.
Did you guys see this parody video?
One of the victims was talking about going to Kaiser – does this shithead live in the Bay Area? If so, starting a petition to attach him to a bungee cord and harness and push him off the Golden Gate Bridge. Totally safe, but probably not much fun for him, and would provide great amusement for everyone else. We could even call it a social experiment.